By: Callie Gao

The French Open organizers are offering tennis players AI (artificial intelligence) to protect them from social media harassment.

The AI was created by a team of linguists, who study language and its structure, that created a system that updated in real time. It generates a more contextual analysis.

The AI technology called ‘Bodyguard’ filters the comments on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.

AI is more intelligent than the keyword filters most apps use to filter comments. The artificial intelligence thinks about who the comment is targeting and detects the meaning of the message.

“As part of its strategy to take care of the players’ mental health, the FFT decided to collaborate with Bodyguard to fight against cyberbullying,” the FFT said in a statement.

“The mental health of the players is a priority for the Roland Garros tournament. We will not accept any form of violence at our tournament,” said Caroline Flaissier, director of the FFT.

The AI has helped many sports players, even earning praise from the woman’s world No. 1 in tennis Iga Swiatek, who is currently using it. She used to check her social media page to check what people thought about her tournaments, but she received negative comments about her matches.

Swiatek hopes the AI can bring back the joy she used to have on social media when reading comments. “It’s just sad to kind of see that the thing that was supposed to kind of make us happy and make us socialized is giving us more negative feelings and negative thoughts,” she said.